Writing for Fun
August 2017
Play Room Story - Jeanette Rothwell
This is a sequel to a story I wrote several years ago called ‘When shall we three meet again?’ It was about three teddy bears and the opening paragraph read:
‘Edward Bear, Cuddles and Blue were all teddy bears living in the toy cupboard of the Stuart family. Jeremy, Jane and Betty were all grown up and didn’t really visit the toy cupboard nowadays. The three bears sat neglected on the shelf feeling bereft of their children’s hugs and kisses.’
The story went on to tell about their enforced separation when the family moved and how, later when Jane had married and given birth to twins, Jake and Liza, by various means the bears were re-united in her home to her delight and the scorn of her rich pop star husband.
Now, once again the bears were redundant. The twins were now teenagers, busy with mobile phones, electronic tablets, social media, twitter, etc. and if they visited the playroom where the bears were housed it was only to play a game on the television.
Jane’s pop star husband was still very successful and the family had gone away to sunnier climes for a long summer holiday and all was quiet in the big family house. Only the housekeeper, Mrs Green, was still occupying the home. She was a homely type of woman but she ruled the house and the family with a firm hand.
In the playroom the bears sat on a shelf huddled together and next to Blue was a toy Dalek which was about 30cm high with flashing lights when it was wound up and it would glide over the floor growling, ‘Exterminate! Exterminate!’ much to the annoyance of Edward Bear who thought the Dalek was a silly toy and not very cuddly like him.
The playroom was, of course, full of discarded rather expensive toys. A large television occupied one corner on which the twins played all sorts of frantic games, Buzz Lightyear flopped in one corner, Barbie was asleep in her box, Woodie’s cowboy hat was lying by Jake’s once favourite toy, toy soldiers littered the floor, a large baby doll was covered in bandages from Lisa’s nurse’s uniform phase, the doll sat in a little buggy one wheel of which had come off and the whole thing lopped sideways, a toy dog which yapped and wagged its tail when it was activated, stood miserably with one paw raised when it had been abandoned. All this rather left the three bears somewhat depressed.
Then, one dark moonless night and the wind was beginning to get very noisy, the only sound in the house was the gentle snoring of the housekeeper sleeping in the next room. Suddenly there was another noise, that of breaking glass and the three bears knew that someone must be breaking in. They listened carefully and a creek on the stairs told them that an intruder was approaching their room which was the first on the landing.
Slowly the door handle turned and the door inched open. Edward Bear nudged Cuddles who then nudged Blue who fell sideways nudging the Dalek. That caused the toy to fall off the shelf. The impact of the fall started the mechanism and the toy glided across the floor towards the door. As the intruder stepped into the room, the Dalek hit him in the shins causing him to fall flat on his face, the growling ‘Exterminate!’ sounding quite eerie. He appeared to be fairly young with rather scruffy clothes, a thin face and of slight build. Quite suddenly Mrs Green appeared behind the intruder carrying a cricket bat with which she threatened the rather deflated visitor. He got up quickly pushed her out of the way, clattered down the stairs and out through the window he had used to enter.
The housekeeper rang the Police and when they arrived she showed them the Dalek and they scratched their heads wondering how it had chosen that moment to cross the playroom floor. The bears grinned and sat up proudly. They knew they had saved the day even though they were feeling redundant. The housekeeper looked at them fairly closely, still wondering how it had happened, but they just stared back.
When the family returned from their holiday, Jane rushed to the playroom and looked around at all the toys but she went over to the three bears, gave each of them a hug and a kiss saying, ‘I have a feeling you had something to do with this. If you did, thank you, you are still my favourite bears and I won’t let you go. You are going to stay here with me and perhaps if I have grandchildren I will let them play with you.’
‘Who knows, your magic might save them one day.’